Twitter bans enforcement of Covid misinformation policy, experts raise concerns
Twitter has stopped its Covid misinformation policy enforcement, raising concerns among health and media experts over the move’s effect on efforts to combat the still-spreading virus, like vaccination.
Alert users spotted the change Monday night, figuring out that a one-sentence update had been made to Twitter’s online rules, “Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the Covid-19 misleading information policy.”
“This policy was used to silence people across the world who questioned the media narrative surrounding the virus and treatment options,” tweeted Dr. Simone Gold, a physician and leading purveyor of Covid-19 misinformation. “A win for free speech and medical freedom!”
BREAKING: Twitter has stopped enforcing its COVID-19 Misinformation Policy as of November 23rd.
This policy was used to silence people across the world who questioned the media narrative surrounding the virus and treatment options.
A win for free speech and medical freedom! pic.twitter.com/Mj56R3rSsG — Dr. Simone Gold (@drsimonegold) November 29, 2022
Twitter’s decision to no longer remove false claims about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines disappointed public health officials, however, who said it could lead to more false claims about the virus, or the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
“Bad news,” tweeted epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, who urged people not to flee Twitter but to keep up the fight against bad information about the virus. “Stay folks — do NOT cede the town square to them!”
Bad news—it seems @Twitter just updated its misleading info policy that #COVID19 misinformation will no longer be enforced. The 11k accounts that were suspended under the old policy will soon be restored. âž¡ï¸Stay folks—do NOT cede the town square to them! https://t.co/aBxPYyvpna pic.twitter.com/7zYnVqj0id — Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 29, 2022
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk accused Apple Inc of threatening to block Twitter Inc from its app store without saying why. Musk revealed shockers related to his claim in a series of tweets. The billionaire said Apple was pressuring Twitter over content moderation demands. He said Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers.